Fig. 1.

Aldosterone stimulates TGF-β₁ production in mesangial cells. (A) Mesangial cells were incubated with or without aldosterone (5 ng/mL) for the indicated time points (○, untreated: •, treated with aldosterone). ^*p<0.05 vs. untreated control. (B) Cells were incubated with various dose of aldosterone or angiotensin II (10^-7 M) or a combination of aldosterone and angiotensin II for 24 hr. ^*p<0.05 vs. untreated control. ^†p<0.05 vs. angiotensin II-treated cells. (C) Cells were pre-incubated with or without spironolactone (10^-9 M) for 60 min and then incubated with aldosterone (5 ng/mL) for 16 hr. ^*p<0.05 vs. untreated control. ^†p<0.05 vs. aldosterone-treated cells. In all of (A), (B) and (C) TGF-β₁ protein was measured by ELISA. Results from 5 independent experiments are shown as mean±SEM. (D) TGF-β₁ protein expression was measured by western blot analysis after cells were pre-incubated with or without spironolactone (10^-9 M) for 60 min, and then incubated with aldosterone. ^*p<0.01 vs. untreated control. ^†p<0.05 vs. aldosterone-treated cells.